Protective serving devices, such as placemats and coasters, are used extensively for food and beverage product service in various public facilities and in residential kitchens. Restaurants that cater to families may provide amusement devices for the children of those families, and these amusement devices may be incorporated into the placemats that are used for serving the food. For example, restaurants have been known to provide disposable paper placements that embody various types of games to keep children occupied before, during and after meals.
These products must be reasonably priced and, thus, relatively inexpensive to manufacture. Examples of improved devices in this field are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,888 (hereinafter the "'888 patent"), which was issued to the assignee of the present invention on Apr. 19, 1988. The '888 patent discloses a reusable protective serving mat which includes an amusement device.
Specifically, the '888 patent discloses a serving mat, including a pair of superimposed pliable sheets sealed to each other to define a chamber. The chamber contains a free-flowing medium such as water. A plurality of discreet articles are suspended in the liquid medium and are movable by manipulation of the liquid in the chamber. Art upper sheet of the serving mat is transparent, so that the inner surface of a lower sheet of the serving mat and the contents of the chamber may be seen. The inner surface of the lower sheet of the serving mat carries fanciful indicia.
The '888 patent and all of the U.S. patents noted as being of record by the U.S. Patent Office during prosecution of the '888 patent are incorporated by reference into this specification. These references include U.S. Pat. Nos. Des. 175,089, issued to Newmark; 2,703,087, issued to Newmark; 2,738,616, issued to Windle; 3,377,738, issued to Goodrum, Jr.; 3,898,781, issued to Facchini; 3,983,277, issued to Ackerman et al.; 4,359,224, issued to Nottingham et al.; 4,362,299, issued to Suzuki; 4,608,323, issued to Zaborney; and 4,631,210, issued to McGee et al.
Yet another example of a protective serving mat is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,267 (hereinafter the "'267 patent"), by an inventor of the present invention. The '267 patent discloses a protective serving mat which is comprised of generally flat first and second chambers superimposed on each other. The first chamber is transparent and is adopted to contain a fluid medium and objects suspended in that fluid medium. The first chamber includes a resealable opening so that a user may access the first chamber to alter the contents. The second chamber is visible through the first chamber, and is used to protect and display generally flat items. The second chamber includes an opening to allow access to the chamber so that the generally flat items can be varied, as desired by a user. Typical of the flat items which may be interchanged are menus or indicia bearing papers.
The '267 patent and all of the references of record therein are also incorporated into this specification by reference. These references, exclusive of those that have already been cited in connection with the '888 patent above, include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,057,921, issued to Ball; 4,390,575, issued to Kopp; 4,528,224, issued to Ausnit; 4,561,109, issued to Herrington; 4,686,784, issued to Smithies; and 4,736,853, issued to O'Mara.
The '888 patent discloses a placemat having a small annular chamber 54. A liquid medium 56, such as colored water, is contained in that chamber. A plurality of discreet articles or objects are suspended in that liquid medium. These discreet articles or objects are movable by manipulation of the liquid within an annular channel defined by the chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,104,699 (hereinafter the "'699 patent"), issued to Pantaleo et al. on Apr. 14, 1992, is relevant to the present invention. The '699 patent discloses a device with distinct similarities to the present invention, in that the article of the '699 patent also has a first and second 22 water-filled chamber. One embodiment of that patent, however, discloses that the chambers are separated. Another embodiment, disclosed at column 4 and claimed in claim 6, discloses that there may be openings between these first and second chambers. These openings 38 and 40 are small, however, as may be seen in FIG. 1. In addition, it is specifically disclosed that the openings in this second embodiment are intended to permit two-way movement of the liquid between the first and second chambers. There is no disclosure that the openings are large enough to permit movement of the discrete articles between the first and second chambers. Rather, the disclosure in the '699 patent provides that "openings 38 and 40 . . . may be provided to enable fluid communication between chamber 22 and channel 28. In this way, as the liquid 30 within the channel is manipulated, and as this liquid 30 in turn propels the movable object around that channel, some of the liquid 30 may enter chamber 22 . . . " (emphasis added). Nothing in the disclosure teaches or suggests that the discrete articles in one chamber are sufficiently small to flow with the liquid in one chamber and pass into the other chamber.
Another patent disclosing water-filled serving mats is U.S. Pat. No. 5,256,457, issued to Pantaleo et al. on Oct. 26, 1993.